A blog dedicated to documenting my progression as a hobbyist, and my eternal indecision about what to paint next!

Defenders of the North – The Grey Company

So I’ve missed a few blog entries, and I apologise! University has a way of sapping away all free time, and the free time I do have is inevitably used trying to figure out what to build or paint, rather than writing blog posts!

Well today I have some things to show you!

I was persuaded (it didn’t take a lot) to finish my Grey Company force for Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit. I didn’t put a lot of work in, the models are painted to a very basic gaming standard, but I think they look good enough for my needs!

I started out with The Three Hunters to represent a grittier Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, the newer Halbarad and Grey Company models (now sadly out of production) and finally the armoured Elladan and Elrohir models.

The army was painted using dark greens and browns, with grey on the cloaks. I even applied this scheme to the normally blue-and-gold twins (I would hope High Elves would be smart enough not to wander the forests in bright gold!!) This simplified the scheme, lowered the amount of different paints used, and gave the force more visual cohesion on the tabletop.

I leave your opinion of the quality of these models to your own judgement, they still need basing but for the most part they’re ready for the tabletop!

Without further ado, I present to you the Grey Company,

Aragorn:

Legolas:

Gimli:

Elladan and Elrohir:

Halbarad with The Banner of Arwen Evenstar:

Rangers of the North:

The Grey Company:

That’s all from me for now. I shall be posting updates more regularly now I’m better settled into college (I hope!)

5 responses to “Defenders of the North – The Grey Company”

Hey man, I’m going to have to be very critical of your work, but I shall be constructive. You are going to need to work on your basics again. You are getting good solid coats, which is well done; however, your shading needs a lot to be desired. There are random bits of wash pooled everywhere, but very little in the recesses.

Firstly, don’t be shading everything with blacks or browns. If it’s green then give it a green wash, if brown then a brown wash, etc. Only put the wash into the recesses as you want your basecoat to stay the same colour. If you have more time then I recommend not using washes much. Instead, start with a dark colour and then layer it up with lighter versions of that colour; leave the original colour in the recesses. This is more time consuming, but looks much better.

You haven’t done any highlighting at all. The best way to highlight is to mix lighter colours successively into your basecoat and apply it in thin lines to the very edges and folds. For the final couple of highlights add some bleached bone to the mix. Then what you should do after all of the shading and highlighting is to get a wash of that colour and add loads of water to it. This makes it a glaze, apply it to the whole area and it will tie it all together very nicely.

Your faces need a lot of work, though they eyes on that one ranger with the hood look very good. You need to get a good solid coat of flesh on the model; I don’t know if you are trying to shade the skin with black or if you just missed areas, but if it’s the former then don’t. Once you have a solid coat of skin tone, water done dark flesh and wash the face with it; you could also just use a flesh wash. Then start adding small amounts of bleached bone to your base and pick out the cheeks, the chin, the upper lips and the forehead. Then pick them all out with bleached bone and finally the most prominent areas with a small amount of white. After this make a purple wash into a glaze and apply it to the skin. This will give it a warm and natural tone.

My last point is do the bases. Nothing makes or breaks models like their bases. Put your sand on before you undercoat them and not only does the undercoat help it stick, but you can paint it any colour you like. Invest in some static grass and apply after painting your sand.

I hope this is helpful and don’t be discouraged. It takes time and practice to get good.

Believe it or not, I actually CAN paint. I usually put a lot more effort into models than I did with these, for two very good reasons which I did not actually highlight in my post – 1) Not having them finished really bugged me, and 2) they’re only likely to see the table one or two times every six months, so why go overboard?

I did however say I didn’t put much effort in and only meant to get them to a basic gaming standard. I also mentioned that they still needed basing, something I plan to do at a later date – I don’t use sand any more, as I prefer the Citadel Texture Paints.

I freely admit I’m not the best painter, but I am no means a beginner – check some of my older posts for better and more detailed paint schemes on even smaller models!